Carry A Big Stick

     The United States is now a melting pot of cultures but was initially settled by the English. The huge size of the colonized area, variation in climate and geography, and cultural backgrounds of the settlers provided an array of diversity to Britain's American colonies. The cold, rocky New England colonies relied on fishing and trade, established large cities along the coast that held major populations, industrial centers, and wealth. The warm, sunny weather and fertile soil throughout the South established a strewn farming population. Over the course of two-hundred years, each region bred an individual culture derived from its heritage, immigrants, and climate. Between the divide of these two major regions sat the new capitol, Washington, District of Columbia.
     During the Antebellum Period (1815-1860), the Industrial Revolution took hold of Europe starting in Britain. The textile factories of the British Isles required thousands of tons of cotton which were provided by the expansive, fertile soils of the American South. Because slaves provided most large-scale farm labor and were valuable commodities to keep production maximized to fulfill the demands of Britain's factories, the number of slaves in the South rapidly re-expanded despite a decrease in overall numbers at the end of the eighteenth century. The abysmal conditions the slaves lived in were justified by a vast majority throughout the South due to the considerable amount of the economy derived from the export of agricultural goods. The dependency on "King Cotton" forced the South to maintain large slave plantations.
     The balance of power in the United States federal government held a rough equality between free and slave-owning states. New state admissions were voted on by Congress, but states had to choose between being a free or slave state before ratification. Meticulous politics, compromises, and several instances of states being accepted in pairs retained the status quo. As America expanded westward and the arid environments proved to be unsustainable for large scale slave plantations, the balance of power, already tentative, tipped slightly. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, later referred to as "Bloody Kansas," saw civilian fighting between abolitionists and pro-slavery groups.
     In response to the horrendous, increasingly violent debate of the morality and economic output of the slavery model, a New England abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner addressed Congress in outrage and insulted the South and many of its outspoken representatives. The code of honor bred into the Southern elite demanded a reaction.
     Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina conferred with friends about requesting a duel. His consultants concluded that the Northerner was not a gentlemen and should not be addressed as one. On May 22, 1956, Rep. Preston Brooks approached Sen. Charles Sumner and addressed him, "You've libeled my state and slandered my white-haired old relative . . . and I've come to punish you for it." Brooks beat Sumner with his cane, broke it, and continued until physically restrained.

     The cane was the weapon of choice because it was a similar model used by Southerns to train dogs. This communicated to the Southern population that its leaders would stand up for them. The North understood this language and rallied support against being beaten down like a slave. During a Congressional hearing weeks later, Brooks said that if he had wished to kill Sumner, he would have used a different weapon. Brooks resigned from his position in Congress after the hearing but was reelected by his constituents in a special election a month later. The incident is the most violent in United States Congress' history but not the only. Several months after the beating, a friend of Brooks attempted to strangle another outspoken abolitionist though no public attention was drawn to the event.
     Sen. Sumner became a martyr for the North abolitionist movement and a hero among later Republicans. Rep. Brooks enjoyed incredible popularity through the South and was sent hundreds of canes to replace the one broken defending the South's pro-slavery stance. Fragments of the broken cane were carved into rings and worn by Southern congressmen as a sign of solidarity with Brooks.
     Tensions continued to spread as the growing nation strove to maintain a balance of power between slave and free states. With the 1860 election of Republican President Abraham Lincoln, the South succeeded starting with Rep. Preston Brooks' South Carolina. After five years of civil war and 650,000 causalities, the victorious Union, composed of the abolitionist North, outlawed slavery throughout the reunited nation.
     Interestingly as the South vehemently defended its agricultural culture, British imports of cotton had been decreasing for decades. By the end of the nineteenth century, most cotton production was sent to New England textile factories. The American Civil War began after many years of aggressive posturing and threats but ended with the United States embracing the Industrial Age and becoming a powerhouse of industry supplied by products of a hardworking, free population. In that new era, President Theodore Roosevelt altered American foreign policy from strict isolationism to a new strategy summed up: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." A native of the North, Roosevelt pushed the United States to global influence and used the words reminiscent of a ferocious act that provoked a civil war to carry a reunited country into the twentieth century.
The American Century.


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Agatha Tyche

Translatable Skills

     Games have been a part of human society for as long as anthropologists and archaeologists are aware. Many species of animals are documented playing with each other, especially the young, to refine defensive or predatory techniques. The modern field of psychology justifies games as a way of developing mental skills like strategy and social interactions like sharing and competition. Board games such as Senet are found in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaoh's and others are referenced in several ancient civilizations. Humans enjoy games because they offer a deviation from the norm with reduced consequences for actions. The American Capitalist game Monopoly by Parker Brothers allows players to amass wealth and eventually force opponents out of the game by resource constriction. Since the game is played in a safe environment with friends and families, the extreme behavior of game play is only acceptable with restrictions and a general understanding that no economic extortion should occur following the game.
     Games are an escape of reality or an altered version that would not be possible otherwise. The Olympics were originally set up as a way for city states to compete nonviolently, a tradition that inspired the modern Olympics. Similarly, medieval Europe used chess to practice battle tactics and hunting to simulate the stress and gore of battle. Amusement, relaxation, or practice for honing skills are all valuable and necessary components of the history gaming. Humans create and play games that are appropriate for their needs and stations in life which is why games from past societies can seem both impossibility alien and astoundingly familiar.
     Since the 1970s modern games have adapted electronic features as the human world becomes more electronic and digitized. The connectivity of the internet has exposed a previously unknown realm of possibility from technological growth and the sharing of knowledge quickly, easily, and and through multiple facets. One of these new areas isMassively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). The most famous and sterotyped, World of Warcraft (WoW)  by Blizzard Entertainment, has about eight million players that can interact, trade, kill, and fight together. These MMORPGs are, essentially, worlds of their own populated by human characters as well as computer-derived characters (Non-Player Characters (NPC)).
     For a specific example, RuneScape (Jagex Ltd) fulfills the stereotyped medieval fantasy world of other MMORPGs, but because the purpose of the game is not necessarily derived from combat, RuneScape's gameplay offers more varied content for this analysis. Within RuneScape are a variety of "skills" that can be trained to achieve whatever the player desires since there is no mandated end game. With twenty-six in all, these skills fall into several categories:
                 Combat (melee, magic, archery, health)
                 Gathering (mining, woodcutting, fishing, farming)
                 Artisan (crafting, cooking, smithing, carpentry)
                 Support (agility, thieving)

     The setup of skills are compatible to create fluid game play. Woodcutting chops trees to collect logs which can be burned to cook food, crafted into timber for building a house, or whittled into bows and arrows. These items are tradable with other players, forming the foundation of the game's economy. In the interest of brevity, no in depth explanation of the skills or their interactions will be provided here due to large volumes of material accessible elsewhere online. 

     In the real world people must perform and repeat tasks to sustain life, accomplish goals, and maintain civilization. RuneScape skills require "grinding" which involves repetition to generate experience that raises the level of that skill. Skills go from level 1 with 0 experience to level 99 with 13 million experience. Level 99 is mastery of that area of the game. All features and content with that skill are available to the player.

     If the point of games is to prepare the player for real aspects of the world, RuneScape may trump other MMORPGs' efforts because of their combat-heavy focus. In an attempt to realize the practicality of virtual skills versus true ability, my own life was analyzed and compared to the requirements of RuneScape and reality. In reality true mastery of fishing would require decades spent catching fish multiple ways in a variety of environments under unpredictable and dangerous conditions, but in RuneScape a player need only achieve the experience limit. 

     Games offer an escape from reality which provides a method of achieving mastery in many separate things. Reality restricts by its very nature and encourages escapism where one can transform into a powerful, wealthy player in a simulated world where the limitations are only those of time and the imagination. Immersive games could continue to grow in popularity as reality is digitized and requires those skills. Already the stock market and military drones are run entirely by computers with only the occasional human input.
     Games reinforce skills needed in the real world by providing otherwise inaccessible experiences. MMORPGs are a new frontier because the medium through which the game is played is not even two decades old. As the world becomes more involved in a digital realm of interaction, the evolution of games into this new form will fulfill and, as it has undoubtedly already, influence the development of the internet, society, and commerce as the Digital Age continues.

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Agatha Tyche

An Uplifting History

     For thousands of years man looked upon the great birds of flight and envied their freedom of the air. Since birds could escape the limitations and confinements of the earthbound, man endeavored to reach the skies. Man is, however, an excellent innovator of death, and with the development of large balloons in 1780s France, the new technology was put to use, almost immediately, on the battlefield.
     The American Civil War in the 1860s strove to expand these innovations to their full potential. President Lincoln organized the Union Army Balloon Corps, originally, for cartography and, later, reconnaissance. Officers quickly realized the potential of air-borne craft and developed a system for balloon pilots to communicate with artillery to hit targets not visible to them. This long-distance precision aiming revolutionized the capacities of the balloon, the cannon, and the battlefield. A balloon on a barge in the Potomac River oversaw formation movements and is considered, by the United States military, the first aircraft carrier. The benefits were determined not to justify the cost of maintenance and equipment and the time transport and filling of the balloons took.
     By the 1880s, a hundred years after the original discovery, the British established a permanent balloon segment of the Royal Engineers which saw involvement in African colonization and the Boer Wars. World War I saw increased use and development of balloons for all purposes since balloon activity proved extremely useful for the static battlefield of the Western Front.

     Zeppelins, mobile balloon airships, were used by the Germans for bombing raids on London, Paris, and several smaller cities. The slow movement of these airships left them open targets once planes could be sent to attack; by the spring of 1915 the German fleet only had four airships remaining.
     World War I was the heyday for balloon warfare because of the stagnant nature of the conflict and the only recent development of airplanes. The late 1920s and and 30s saw gas-filled airships at the height of use and popularity. Trans-Atlantic travel was possible, and German Zeppelins carried passengers around Europe. The dangers of large volumes of flammable gas and the numerous crashes and explosions eventually lost the travel market to airplanes which were faster and safer. The Zeppelin airship company refunded all travel tickets in 1940.
     World War II saw some usage of balloons but as secondary weapons. The British hung long steel cables from balloons to crash low-flying aircraft during bombing raids ("blimps") and some balloons were used in reconnaissance but much reduced from World War I due to the increased capabilities of airplanes.
     One of the most effective offensive uses of balloons was the Japanese fire balloons (fu-go) during the later part of World War II. Over three-hundred balloons reached the American mainland drifting over three-thousand miles of ocean. Several balloons made it more than seven-thousand miles. Six deaths resulted in a single incident. The U.S. military ordered a press blackout to prevent the Japanese hearing of the success fearing that future balloons could carry biological weapons. The press blackout worked, and in April 1945 the Japanese cancelled the fire balloon strategy because of high cost and no known success.

     

     In current times balloons are used to monitor weather at high altitudes, and the U.S. still uses balloons for observation purposes in some of its many military involvements.

     The history of balloons reveals the innovative capacities for technology from maps to spies to travel bombers to bomb hindrance. Balloons played an important role in the development of modern warfare and the world. By enabling artillery to attack what was non visible, battle strategies changed. They made heroes, bombed cities, changed travel, and still impact the world today. Balloons are still up, useful, and rock the world, It will be a great loss to the history of the modern world if the impact of the balloon finally deflates completely and the balloon market bursts.

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Agatha Tyche

Battle of Chalmette

     The War of 1812 is often overlooked by America because of its inconclusive outcome with no arrangements altering the political or geographical landscape in 1815. In Britain the war is seen only as a minor conflict stimulated by the Napoleonic Wars. The conclusion of the war left the British largely apathetic except to American trade, especially cotton - an issue before and after the fighting. The War of 1812, nonetheless, acted as America's second revolutionary war by solidifying the nation's identity, strengthened patriotism, and dominated federal politics for decades, but the legacy of the war itself is amplified by the events of the last major battle of the war in the defense of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi.
     From 1812-1814 the British conflict with France's powerful army prevented further extension of the British navy into American wars. These circumstances allowed America to have a free hand to maneuver in North America without retaliation by the British, but a disorganized rabble-invasion of Canada through Vermont and New York failed to instigate Canadian revolution against their British overlords.
     Although America declared war against the British for the practice of impressment and the ridiculous trade requirements for American ships, much of the country, especially the more populous, trade-dependent New England region did not look forward to war. Indeed, the declaration of war barely passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It was said was America would surely lose a war it did not wish to fight.

"Many nations have gone to war in pure gaiety of heart, but perhaps the United States were the first to force themselves into a war they dreaded, in the hope that the war itself might create the spirit they lacked."
~Henry Adams

     By 1814 the British were able to turn the force of their might against the former colonies. Beginning the assault in August by combining the experience of their army and the indomitable skill of their navy, Britain quickly captured Washington D.C., the fledgling capitol city of the United States, before continuing along the Chesapeake Bay to attack Baltimore, easily one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the new country. A barraged Fort McHenry stood strong through a lengthy assault before forcing the British back and inspired one Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer from Maryland, to pen "The Star Spangled Banner" which became America's anthem. Another prong of the British offensive attempted to cut the Northern states from the Southern states along Great Lakes, but the British navy was spectacularly defeated by a stalwart, unconquerable Oliver Hazard Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie in the fall of 1814. The final major British offensive front sought control of the trade along the Mississippi River, but General Andrew Jackson successfully stopped the significantly larger British force with skill, courageous troops, and the swampy landscape.
     It is Jackson's defense that has become one of the most memorable points of the war. With a British force at least three times his own and a large naval fleet accompanying the invaders, Jackson's occupation of New Orleans seemed hopeless, tenuous at best. To keep order in the city while the British drew near, marshal law kept the city in artificial calm.
     Up until Christmas, there was little antagonistic interaction between the two sides which bespoke the Treaty of Ghent signed on Christmas Eve to end the hostilities. Because of the months it took to send word of peace, neither side new the end had come and, thus, proceeded with preparation for the upcoming battle.
     The British mistakes were many, but mainly that their commanders mistook their advantage of time, for it was time Jackson used to choose his position and prepare substantial defenses.
     On the morning of January 8, 1815, the British moved against the American force. With a thick morning fog arising from the swampy ground, the British tried to use the cover for their attack. The fog, the American's protected position from the British Naval guns, and the wide, open swampland the British marched through allowed the sharp-shooting American frontiersmen to absolutely decimate their assailants. A raised canal wall about five feet high provided the Americans with a protected defensive position while obstructing the enemies progress.
     By the end of the morning, the field looked like a lake of blood, not of the blood of the British, but of the coats of the soldiers that had marched in file against the canal. In a few hours of fighting, the Americans held all but a single section of their line and retained control of New Orleans, the Mississippi, and the country they fought to defend.
     The causalities of this battle are startling considering the vast odds. The British had 2,042 causalities including two generals; the Americans had 71 total: 13 dead, 39 wounded, and 19 missing.

     The Battle of New Orleans is a microcosm of the War of 1812. The Americans fought to defend what they already had against overwhelming might, proven military experience, and the naval dominance of the British Empire. Like the war at large, New Orleans exited the war little changed physically but with a new found energy, confidence, and enthusiasm embodied by its peoples. 

     From a material standpoint, the War of 1812 was a minor affair in British history and only mildly inconvenient for for the United States with the rebuilding of the capitol, notably the White House. War has always influenced history, and the War of 1812 is not an exception however overlooked it is. The results of the war gave the U.S. a concrete identity as a nation. They successfully defended against invasion multiple times against superior forces. This defense came against a larger, more experienced force that had defeated Napoleon months earlier. Thus, the United States became a nation in its own right and was recognized as such. The successful defenses, especially at Fort McHenry and New Orleans, inspired national unity, patriotism, and confidence that the new nation would prevail.
     One of the most significant effects of the Battle of New Orleans was the popularity of Gen. Andrew Jackson who rode that fame to the presidency where his policies affected federal affairs for decades. His stubbornness popularized the donkey as a symbol for the Democrats, the oldest and largest political party in American history, and his handling of the national bank affected budget and economic affairs until after the Civil War, thirty years later.
     America's forgotten war might seem insignificant to the War for Independence forty years earlier or the Civil War forty years later, but because events are not held up in ceremony and acclaim does not diminish the real affect. The War of 1812 helped make America what it is today just as much as its many other bloody conflicts still shape it and the world today.


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Agatha Tyche

Mutinous Christmas Respite: Lest We Forget

"On earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:14b (KJV)   

  

     A full century ago in a world where progress seemed inevitable, war seemed quick and glorious, and men were able to acknowledge their enemies as humans, a strange, unrepeated event occurred throughout the bloody, muddy, frozen trench lines of the Western Front of the War to End All Wars. The Christmas truce of 1914 has long been a tale of wonder, disbelief, and hope that enemies embittered and bloodied by war could reconcile differences under the universal joy of shared humanity. Due to staggering losses in the early, mobile stages of the WWI, many of the soldiers in the trench by the first winter were either reserve troops or volunteers. In December 1914 six inches of rain fell in Northern France and drenched a shocked, bloodied frame of the remaining regular troops. Percy Jones of the Queen's Westerminster Rifles wrote of the 1st Royal Fusiliers leaving the trenches after only four days on 23 December that they were, "tattered, worn, struggling, footsore, weary, and looking generally broken to pieces. Hairy, unshaved, dirty-faced . . ." These were men who were worn from living, not from fighting, in the trenches.
     The alien conditions of a stagnated war where most regular enlisted men were already buried under the shell-torn land combined and torrential rain made the newly-disturbed earthen trenches swamps of precipitous mud established an unspoken agreement from both sides to adopt a "live and let live" policy that allowed certain activities and locations to go unmolested by the constant aggression of the war.
     Charles Sorley, a British officer and poet wrote, "During the night a little excitement is provided by patrolling the enemy's wire. Our chief enemy is nettles and mosquitoes. All patrols - English and German - are much averse to the death and glory principle; so, on running up against one another . . . both pretend that they are Levites and the other is a good Samaritan - and pass by on the other side, no word spoken. For either side to bomb the other would be a useless violation of the unwritten laws that govern the relations of combatants permanently within a hundred yards of each other, who have found out that to provide discomfort for the other is but a roundabout way of providing it for themselves."

     This close proximity led to units bantering back and forth with jests, insults, and songs. The same miserable conditions between enemy regiments over several months laid the foundation for one of the most remarkable events of the war. The Germans held Christmas Eve as the most important day of Christmas festivities and erected Christmas trees embellished with candles along the trench lines against official orders. The lights initially confused British and French forces, but the singing of "Stille Nacht Heilige Nacht (Silent Night, Holy Night)" cemented the tidings of the season. On Christmas day, wines, cakes, and trinkets were exchanged by both sides and, possibly,  impromptu games of football took place over parts of No Man's Land not pocketed with shell craters. The Christmas surplus issued by governments to their enlisted men provided the perfect establishment for a barter-like Christmas celebration.
     Not all regions of the trenches saw the joviality of comradery, but for the segments still entangled by the bitterness and death of war, Christmas day passed relatively quietly as each side was left to celebrate more or less on its own. Overall, the truce seems to have been quite extensive although unofficial and against the orders of high command. The Christmas truce of 1914 was inconsistent with a widely varying involvements and fraternization, but for most combatants, Christmas was a peaceful day, for many the week to New Years was quiet, and for a lucky few the unofficial holiday celebrations continued well into January.
     Hundreds of stories, recorded in letters to home, tell of interactions between British and German, German and French, and to a lesser extent Russian and German, and Austrian and Russian forces. In 1915 attempts were again made by both sides to initiate an unofficial truce, but explicit, enforced orders by superior officers and localized artillery barrages redacted any widespread involvement.
     Post-WWI the West has become bitter, cynical, narcissistic, and disillusioned, but these men did not live in our world. They lived in a world that had seen national movements unite entire peoples in Germany and Italy. In a world that had seen the world transform by industrialization, where progress seemed inevitable, and where hope could reside in the most despondent of places. Christmas is a time of remembering and celebration. This year, let us remember. Lest We Forget.

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Agatha Tyche

A United People Remain Estranged

     The modern country of Germany has long had a history of division with unification often seemingly beyond reach. As the Germanic Kingdom, titled the Holy Roman Empire, gradually weakened, the ties of the Germanic tribes dissolved to the point of hostility. The Protestant Reformation nearly obliterated these internal connections altogether with small kingdoms establishing themselves based on religious preference, alliance, and ruling family.
     Eventually, one of these kingdoms built itself into a formidable power. Prussia gained the military strength to assert itself on other Germanic states and defend itself from elite European powers while successfully developing a competitive economy that attracted weaker factions in the surrounding lands. Though the rise of Prussia did not proceed without hindrance or opposition, the nationalist movements in the mid-nineteenth century converted the issue of German unification into into greater Germanic social relations. Prussia began a series of consolidating wars to protect its borders, expand trade, and enhance its power with the intent of German unification. Led by Otto von Bismarck, Prussia used manipulation of international politics and German nationalism to unite itself.
     The first of Bismarck's three wars involved extracting Schleswig and Holstein, independent duchies, from the Danish crown. Both areas had large German populations that outnumbered the Danes. The results of a short war saw an Prussian-Austrian alliance gain control of the region
     The second war pitted a small, mobile Prussian military against the large, outdated Austrian army for control over the northern Germanic states. Winning the war in just seven weeks, Prussia formed the North German Confederation and excluded Austrian influence in this seedling empire. The defeat lost Austria land to Italy in the south, influence in German peoples to the north, and created internal divisions that later forced a more representative government in an Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Despite his victory, Bismarck campaigned for the North German Confederation to exclude Austria.

     Although Austria contained a significant German population, its borders included many non-Germanic peoples that today represent many of the Baltic and Eastern European nations. Otto von Bismarck, a master statesman who caused Europe to dance to his fiddle for nearly thirty years, had many motives for negating Austrian influence within a newly formed German alliance.

     1.) For centuries, Germans states had been splintered into small holdings that gave allegiance to a larger power for trade and military defense. Prussia had once been a minor player but had political ambitions that necessitated command over ever-growing geographic boundaries. As Prussia's power grew to match Austria's the two nations competed for smaller states' support. By disassociating Austrian influence in Germany, Prussia could proudly declare the new empire's strength to be from her establishments.
     2.) The Zollverein, the German Customs Union, gave Prussia a huge economic advantage over Austria. By minimizing or removing tariffs, trade between Prussia and the German states flourished exponentially as industrialization took hold. Austria's initial disinterest in the union undermined its ability to economically support its allied states while giving Prussia consolidated control over a large portion of the Germanic peoples. 
     3.) Despite defeating Austrian, many of the German duchies still favored Austrian's less militaristic governance. Prussia refused to risk losing a German confederation so recently secured. 
     4.) To avoid hypocrisy and to retain integrity abroad, Bismarck's Prussia defended its initial political reasons for the war. If Prussia had allowed its recent enemy occupancy within its new empire, negative public perception could have incited a second war with Austria.
     5.) After the Concert of Europe in 1815 and the agreement for the balance of power among Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, a full union of Austria and Prussia would have incited a full scale European war to protect the power balance. A decade before the Northern German Confederation, Britain and France warred with Russia over its expansionist policies in the Black Sea. Russia, Britain, and France feared that a united Austria-Prussia would be an unstoppable force on the continent. To send a clear signal that Prussia was content with its new station, Bismarck sent a clear signal to the other major powers that a united Germany would not include Austria.
     6.) Lastly, Bismarck, Wilhelm, and von Moltke, all saw Prussia and the larger German state as purely German. Austria was a large, encompassing empire with significant minorities that did not fit Prussian ideals. Nationalism and the great German dream of unification began with Napoleon's invasion in the early nineteenth century. The division of power between Austria and Prussia remained the most significant reason for continued division in the 1850-60s. With Prussia's clear dominance over Austria and unification in sight, many Germans enthusiastically supported Prussia as full consolidation of the German state occurred in 1871.

     Prussia successfully united Germany through politics, economics, and social ideology, and its exclusion of its greatest competing threat allowed antagonized areas to quickly accept a unified Germany. This new empire became the most powerful military in the world in a few short decades and gave the world a scapegoat for the two deadliest wars in history. After World War II, Russia, Britain, and the United States attempted to remove the Prussian military history from the German people's minds to avoid another world war. They achieved this by dividing Germany again. A new, modern, reunited Germany is now the largest economy in Europe. The effects of Germany's unification have been profound, and the projection of that nation is much easier to grasp when a portion of its past is revealed. No country must conform to its trajectory because Germany has become a respected global leader with a generous government, green economy, and retained the enthusiastic society that has made Germany what it has been in every age.

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Agatha Tyche

Reinterpreting Men who Died for Labor

"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, ... It is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitue, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."
"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prison-"
"And the Union workhouses." demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many more would rather die."
         A Christmas Carol. 1843. Charles Dickens.

     For just over two centuries, human society has transitioned into the Industrial Age. Before that time, credited with beginning in England at the end of the eighteenth century, the points and purposes of work were to sustain oneself and one's family, provide for those that could not provide for themselves, and save for future times of need. Machinery simplifies repetitive tasks and speeds up the means of production; thus, mass production not only led to a consumerist culture since more goods were manufactured than needed but also led to a population boom that created a frontier-style mentality of humankind, that is, that humans were an expendable resource that could easily be replaced. While modern industrialized countries now have steady or declining birth rates and bulk at the wanton waste of human life in developing nations, throughout the nineteenth century, Europe had a mindset that human death or disfigurement for capital gain was acceptable, even virtuous.
     As the Age of Industrialization has progressed, work has been made easier and with less exploitation of common works for the gains of the rich. Labor unionization, largely in the twentieth century, enabled the workforce to unite for gain, recognition, and protection. This mentality aided in popularizing socialist ideals throughout Europe through the current day. Work was not always a mindlessly repetitive affair accomplished by machines because skilled artisans used to be responsible for the means of production.
     The Luddites were a loosely organized group of artisans that armed in resistance to wage decreases brought on unskilled workers running machines for lower wages than artisans who had no other support for their livelihood. Luddites did not fear technology, machinery, or the transition into an age of mass production. Their fear was a loss of labor to unskilled workers for reduced wages. For acting out on that fear, hundreds were killed or exiled.

     These industrious, intelligent, skillful men expressed their anger by destroying the cause of their destruction: the machines that replaced them. Often they posted letters attributing the destruction of machines by the order of King Ludd or General Ludd who was rumored to live in Sherwood Forest, home of the fabled Robin Hood. This mascot, a fictitious figure gave the Luddite Cause momentum, mystique, and an unconquerable hope. In 1812, 12,000 British troops were deployed to quell civil uprising and protect factories in north-central England. This force outnumbered the one that occupied the Iberian Peninsula to fight Napoleon. 

     Meeting the concerns of the people with force and legal punishments of execution or penal exilement to Australia led to an impassioned plea of a Romantic sympathizer in the House of Lords in 1812 before the passage of the Frame Breaking Act. On February 27, 1812, Lord Byron pleaded:

During the short time I recently passed in Nottingham, not twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act of violence, and on that day, I left the county I was informed that forty Frames had been broken the preceding evening, as usual, without resistance and without detection. Such was the state of our country, and such I have reason to believe it to be at this moment. But whilst these outrages must be admitted to exist to an alarming extent, I cannot be denied that they have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress.
The perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings, tends to prove that nothing but absolute want could have driven a large and once honest and industrious, body of the people, into the commission of excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families, and their community. They were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them: their own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employment preoccupied; and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned, can hardly be subject to surprise.
 As the sword is the worst agruement that can be used, so should it be the last. In this instance it has been the first, but providentially as yet only the scabbard. The present measure will, indeed, pluck it from the sheath; yet had proper meetings been held in the earlier stages of these riots, had the grievances of these men and their masters (for they also had their grievances) been fairly weighted and justly examined, I do think that means might have been devised to restore these workmen to their avocations, and tranquility to the country.

     The crimes of the Luddites were not often the destruction of factories or the murder of factory owners. With some exceptions, attacks were carried out at night against machine-based factories whose owners had opted to fire and displace a large worker base. The anger of the common man was not against machine but against the abuse of his fellow man.
     While the term "Luddite" has come to mean a backward-minded, fear-mongering, simpled-headed individual too scared or stupid to accept change, the true motivation of the men two centuries dead was a fear of becoming obsolete and taken for granted. This is true of many societies today whether industrializing from manpower to machine or as machines expand to encompass and control more industries.
     The protest at the beginning of the Industrial Age did not go unheard; it went misinterpreted. As always, those who do not know, understand, or forget history must suffer the repetition of its lessons Let us keep our sledgehammers in hand, ever prepared to resist the avarice of those who do not value community or quality, only the wealth gained through exploitation.

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Agatha Tyche